New Poll - Foreign Films

This week's poll was suggested by our member Transdude1996. When watching a foreign film, do you just watch in the native language (that you probably don't understand), go for the subs, go for the dub, or maybe you don't care? And by "foreign film," I mean a movie that's not in a language that you readily understand.

Original language that I don't understand - obviously I'd miss a LOT. I do watch Japanese music shows without subs (or dubs), but there the main point is the music performances and missing what they're chatting about in between really doesn't matter much.

Dubbed into English it just looks wrong because the mouths don't match the sounds and bothers me to the point of not being able to enjoy the show very much (and English shows dubbed into Japanese are pretty awful as well). Anime isn't as bad as live action, but I still much prefer subs.

I can understand not liking subtitles if someone's a slower reader, but I've always been a faster reader and subtitles have never bothered me (saw "King of Hearts" when I was ~10 and had no problems).

________________"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."-James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Yep, agree with Lightmare. I like to watch everything in its original language with english subs rather than subs in my native language. (Which is usually a good thing, cause German subs aren't always available)

I have to say that these options aren't taking all options into consideration. It was already mentioned that english subs are prefered even if english isnt a native language. I admit that is my prefered choice too with original dub combined.

Depends on a case-by-case basis.Sometimes our dubbers use such great VA's that they become The Voice of the actor; making it feel that anything else is a cheap imitation and not a viable option, even if I know the language in question.

But such cases are very, very rare.

Far more often VA's do a half-assed job, losing many emotional elements present in the original and not adding anything to compensate for it. In that case any kind of subs are much better for watching.

And the final case is when the language itself sounds extremely different from those I know (i.e. it is tonal, like Chinese), making it hard to listen to it. In that case, a dub is a must, with subtitles.

Why is there no option for "subtitles for a language you know".I have two native languages (and whether I've learned English as a second or first language is arguable), but I don't really care what language the subtitles are, as long as it's one I know well enough.I've watched anime with German subtitles, without any problems. (subtitles are rare on German TV, but it happens)

Also: I can't really read that well, in my mothers tongue (thus subtitles in the language would do me no good), and there are many cases where I prefer English, to the language of the country where I am born and raised, due to the fact that English translations will often be more reliable, given that they have a greater audience, the subtitles tend to be made with a higher budget and the translators are taken from a much greater pool of possible people ...and that is MUCH more true of my mothers tongue.

As long as the translation is good, however, I don't care.

As for dubs... I only, voluntarily, watch dubs if they are parody dubs (intentional or not), or something like that.Like the Swedish dub of Cyborg 009, which is a classic among Swedish anime fans. It's done by ONE individual (no one knows who), who is really terrible at Swedish.It's hilarious.

I'd also like to add that I am saddened by the people stating that they prefer English, even though it's not their native tongue. (other than for the reasons I stated in my previous post)Why?Well, it's probably due to it being somewhat exotic ...that and being used to such things, being in English.